Director Of Player Engagement Will Make Sure Huskies Continue To Grow

It's an important role. The Huskies can get better there. They have the potential, and it's up to Jones to bring it all out.

Jones also doubles as director of player engagement, a job he embraces.

"It's pretty cool, and actually it's who I am. It's in my DNA," said Jones, a veteran coach who was director of player engagement the previous two seasons at Notre Dame under head coach Brian Kelly, and also when he was with now-UConn head coach Bob Diaco at Cincinnati (2009). He began at Central Michigan in 2005 as cornerbacks coach and director of player engagement.

At Cincinnati, "Coach Kelly took it and ran with it ... because I kind of did these things before. This comes with the package, so I did it at Central Michigan and Cincinnati, and we got to Notre Dame and Coach Kelly wanted me on staff so he created this position of director of player engagement, which is really important because it shows we really care about these young people."

This is where the Huskies will learn more about life off the field, how to carry and conduct themselves in almost any situation, and grow spiritually.

Jones certainly has the personality and passion to do the job successfully with the goal — when their college days are over — of returning them to their parents as better men.

Intrigued, like many, Bob Joyce, who hosts the Geno Auriemma basketball show, asked Diaco about the player engagement position.

"It is a great role that [Jones] is an expert at and it is making sure players have a yearlong plan for developing in a myriad of different areas," Diaco, a guest on Auriemma's show, told Joyce. "Let's just call it social development. it is teaching them about agents; it's teaching them about drugs and alcohol; it's teaching them and giving them inspirational stories from people that had adversity and persevered, bringing those people into clinic and lecture. It's teaching them how to write a resume. It's teaching them how to do an interview. It's teaching them how to set a table or eat with a fork and knife properly, and etiquette; a myriad of different life-skills lessons and social development levels that help the players engage. It will also develop for a yearlong plan, a detailed community service plan where we are out in the community helping."

Jones broke it down even more.

"We develop them socially, intellectually, spiritually, physically," he said. "That's what we're going to do for these young people and Coach Diaco has allowed me to oversee the social and spiritual part of the development. I mean, this is big. This is a big part of our program. I'm very appreciative of Coach Diaco for giving me the opportunity to do it here. Man, it's going to be good."

Jones said the players will have to first understand "other centerness."

"That means I care more about the well-being of others and doing more for others than I do my very own self," Jones said. "We don't want to recruit people who don't understand what other centerness is. That's what we look for when we recruit. That's what we look for in our staff. Other centerness is key to who we are because in the social development piece these young people are going to be around their best friends, could be the best man in their weddings, could meet their future wives, this is where they're going to be for the next four, five years, teaching them how to grow and excel in this environment is important and I'm going to be a big part of that.

"Now there's a whole bunch of areas on campus you can go, but we want to show the players and their parents that it's important that we're going to be out in the lead in regard to those things, the social development piece, the spiritual piece, the intellectual piece."

Many of the players on the team have a spiritual base.

"Just because you come to the University of Connecticut doesn't mean you won't have the opportunity to pursue your faith," Jones said. "No, you're going to be able to come here and love the God that you love. So we provide opportunities for them to grow spiritually in our community. So I'll get out and meet some people in the community so when this young man, for example, says, 'I'm a Seventh Day Adventist or I'm a Catholic or I'm a Baptist or I'm a Jehovah's Witness,' well, OK, here you go. And we're going to do things in our building, fellowship, non-denominational type things, players, coaches. We're going to make sure they understand that Jesus Christ should be in the center of our huddle, that that's something that is important. If you want to be successful and you want to win, get championships then you better understand that this didn't happen because of you. This happened because of our Lord and Savior. That's going to be something said by Bob Diaco. That's something that's going to be said by Ernest Jones. That's who we are."

"We really don't get to see UConn football in the community often and we hear about it even less but that's going to change," Jones said.

Jones said the Huskies will visit hospitals, elementary schools, retirement homes and churches to show that giving back is a consistent part of what UConn football players do.

There will be another element to the engagement role Jones will have his hands on: engaging former players, a critical move in establishing tradition. Having players come back and talk to current players is something the staff is serious about.

"It's a pretty cool being involved with young people," Jones said. "That's why I love this role. We want to care about these young people. We want them to know that and how important these things are in their development. The winning on the field will come because we're going to do winning things within our program because the things we've talked about are winning things."